On the one hand, Don't Look Now is a complex of recurrent images, ideas, and themes, all intermingled superbly yet seamlessly and rendered with variations. There's the theme of looking (seeing, blindness, avoidance of seeing, "psychic" reading, as well as the idea of "watching over" someone, both poorly or successfully). Then there's the theme of red (a child's red coat and a another person's equally red coat, the red of ink, of blood, and mosaic tiles). There is the theme of scary decay (Venice in disrepair, empty hotels closing for winter, strange and dangerous alleys, a serial killer on the loose). And there is the theme of communication (letters, 'phone calls, psychic communication, not hearing what someone says to you from another room, making love as communication).

It's also a scary movie with a creepy setting and a puzzle buried at its heart. It's not The Haunting or Halloween level scary. It's more thoughtful, but still with a surprise ending that should still manage to shock unsuspecting viewers (don't read now if you wish to retain that surprise).

Don't Look Now is the story of John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, who became lovers for a time). When their daughter Christine dies in a freak drowning accident, John, an architectural restorer, soon after finds himself in Venice renovating the church of St. Nicholas, partially as work, but also partially as therapy for himself and his wife, who took the death terribly. While there, Laura meets a pair of old Scottish spinster sisters the bossy Wendy (Cielia Mantania) and the blind Heather (Hilary Mason). Heather also has psychic capabilities, and almost instantly talks to Laura about seeing Christine. Meanwhile John experiences a series of strange incidents and accidents, culminating in his chase through the decrepit and dark streets of Venice after a small figure in a red coat whom he thinks is his daughter. He is wrong to a disastrous degree.

Don't Look Now is based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, whose work was frequently adapted by Hitchcock (Rebecca,Jamaica Inn, and The Birds). Writing ran in the du Maurier line. Her uncle wrote the popular novel Trilby, about an artist's model who falls under the spell of a hypnotist named Svengali, and Daphne du Maurier's books and stories were widely popular. Which is surprising, because her tales are weird, strained, and grim.

Screenwriters Chris Bryant and Alan Scott (who has worked with director Nicolas Roeg on other films) have remained true to du Maurier's bleak vision and written a film that doesn't flinch from the tragic nature of life. It's one of the saddest horror films ever made. And not just because it deals with the death of a child. The film is sad also because it is about a man who denies his gift (John is psychic and doesn't even know it, and in fact calls psychism "mumbo jumbo"), and because it is about a happy marriage assaulted by the forces of fate. Don't Look Now wrestles with the sorrowful fact that we cannot escape death.

Don't Look Now is one of the great "Venice" movies. Like Death in Venice and The Comfort of Strangers, it takes a rather dire view of life in the watery city. In fact, the only "happy" Venice movie I can think of is David Lean's Summertime.

Much, much more can be learned about Don't Look Now in Mark Sanderson's BFI monograph on the movie (ISBN 0 85170 572 3).